The Nightmare
by ucsbdad
Summary: In this, we see a different side of Kate Beckett.


The Nightmare

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own none of it. Rating: K Time: Indeterminate, but after their marriage.

"Mr. Castle, Mr. Satan will see you now."

Rick shot to his feet and looked around him, confused as to where he was. "Who will see me?"

"Mr. Satan. You know, the Devil?"

Rick looked at his surroundings. It was not what he expected the afterlife to look like. It looked like a high-end office, not too different from Black Pawn's or many lawyers' offices he'd been in. "Satan wants to see me?"

The receptionist, a pretty young woman, but rather conservatively dressed, smiled. "You're Richard Castle, the author?"

He nodded.

"Then you're Mr. Satan's two o'clock. Please go right in." She pointed to a door. On it in black letters was the name: Satan. He went through the door.

"Mr. Castle. How good to see you again. Please, sit down. Can I offer you an ice-cold bottled water?" He smiled. "You won't see many of those outside of the corporate offices here."

A bottled water, dripping condensation appeared on the desk in front of Castle. He took it. It was cold. He took a chance to look around. Mr. Satan looked like dozens of businessmen he'd run across. Well dressed, if conservatively so. A bit older than Castle and a bit heavier. The office could have been anyone of a million in any skyscraper in New York. Even the view was of a cityscape and not the punishments of the damned.

"Um, you're not what I expected." Castle hoped he wasn't being insulting, but then again, he was in Hell.

Mr. Satan laughed. "You were expecting the red guy with cloven hooves, a tail, horns and maybe a pitchfork? You thought I'd be jabbing some poor sinner with the pitchfork?"

Castle nodded.

"Those are very old and outdated notions, Mr. Castle. We here in Eternity are in charge of everything, so to speak. The boys upstairs handle those who managed to stay on the straight and narrow, more or less, in life, while we down here handle those who were, well, evil, is the only word for it. You might think of me as being a combination of the police, judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. I can do that, where you mortals have to separate the functions, because I am all seeing and all knowing, just like the guy upstairs. I do a job, Mr. Castle, the same as you do and the same as many other people do."

"I suppose that makes sense." Castle said, still mystified as to why he was there.

"Not that I wouldn't be just as happy if you people could just learn to live with the ten simple rules we here at Eternity gave you. But, you have free will, you know." Mr. Satan stopped. "Oops! Spoiler alert. Yes, you do have free will, Mr. Castle. I guess that takes care of all those interminable debates in philosophy classes. Can you imagine what we'd go through if we had to determine all of the actions in the Universe? Do you have any idea how big Infinity is?" Satan shook his head. "Of course, you can't understand Infinity. Anyway, it's much simpler if we just let all of life make its own decisions. And the number of bad decisions that are made is staggering."

"Would you mind telling me why I'm here?"

"Oh, we like to call our customers down here to give them a short rundown on why they're headed here, what to expect and so on. You know, get them ready so that they feel more at home when they eventually do arrive."

"I don't recall doing anything that would warrant…Hell. I didn't murder anyone, or steal…much. There was Tommy Hendrick's Batman comic in fifth grade…"

"Oh, please, Rick. Can I call you Rick?"

He nodded.

"Perhaps a bit of show and tell. What you did was to subvert the normal course of events. Not a very common error by you mortals, but wrong, none the less."

Rick suddenly found himself back at Montgomery's funeral, just as Kate was shot. He watched himself bending over her. "I love you, Kate. Kate, I love you." He heard himself say.

Suddenly everything froze and Mr. Satan appeared beside his earlier self. "Kate Beckett is going to die, Mr. Castle. She's been shot in the heart. She'll be dead before she's put in the ambulance."

"No!" He heard himself scream. "Anything but that."

"Anything?" The prior Mr. Satan said with a smile.

"Yes. Anything."

"Then sell me your soul and Kate Beckett will live."

Rick agreed at once.

Suddenly, he was back in Mr. Satan's office. "You see? You kept Kate Beckett alive when she should have died. So, you owe me."

"What will my punishment be?"

"Oh, we don't have to decide that now. Something to fit the crime. Perhaps you'll watch Kate, and Alexis and your mother get shot and die for eternity. Oh, maybe I can show you something."

He and Mr. Satan were on a dark New York street. An attractive blonde was grabbed from behind and strangled by a man he knew well.

"That's Jerry Tyson. You're letting him kill again down here?"

Mr. Satan laughed. "No. The blonde is Jerry Tyson. The part of Jerry Tyson is being played by Dr. Kelly Niemen. Tyson feels the horror of being strangled slowly, over and over again and the good doctor has to kill the only person she ever loved, over and over."

Mr. Satan checked his watch. "I'm afraid my next appointment is here. I'll send you back, but I'll see you soon."

Castle sat bolt upright in his bed, his heart pounding and sweat pouring off of him.

"Babe, what is it?"

"Just a bad nightmare. It was just a dream. I'm just going back to sleep."

Kate kissed him and snuggled up against him. "Sleep tight, Lover."

When Castle was asleep, Kate ran her shooting at Montgomery's funeral through her mind. She had looked up at Castle as he said, "I love you, Kate. Kate, I love you." The she remembered the part that Castle hadn't remembered. She had looked up and said, "I love you, too, Rick, but I'm about to die." Then her assistant showed up and Rick sold his soul to the Devil. Just not the Devil he knew.

Kate smiled to herself and went back to sleep.

The End

**Author's note: There was some discussion a while ago between myself and Hamlet 77 as to whether I could write an evil Kate Beckett. I think I just did.**

**I have A Merry Casketty Christmas done, but I won't post it until nearer to Christmas. I'm working on a military sci fi story called The Pilot. Once more our heroes are on a planet that no one would willingly visit. This is not s sequel to Deadly Planet, however. I do have ideas for both the Lord and Lady Castle stories and a sequel to Deadly Planet. **


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